Dynasty

Dynasty Review

Although its name has nothing to do with the 1980s television show of the same name, this restaurant's regular clientele (showbiz types, football heroes, dangling arm candy) does sometimes resemble a casting call for a soap opera. Although it's not required, you may want to dress the part when you come here. The interior is certainly fanciful: the Art Deco starting point blurs into an Asian frenzy of rice-paper umbrellas and golden Buddhas. In the summer, you should try for a table on the "dream terrace" set in a majestic Golden Age courtyard. Chef K. Y. Lai's menu, which is full of Cantonese, Thai, Malaysian, and Vietnamese culinary classics, is as ambitious as the décor; his drunken prawns (jumbo shrimp marinated in an intoxicating broth of Chinese herbs and Xiaoxing wine) are reliably excellent.